Food for Agile Thought #149: Multitasking Fallacy, Scaling Scrum, Agile Is a Cult, Agile Org Design

Food for Agile Thought’s issue #149 addresses the multitasking fallacy many managers suffer from, how to design an organization that supports agile teams tasked with solving customers’ problems, and what to do when your Scrum team gets too large.

We also enjoy Marty Cagan’s follow-up post — I hope you have read ‘The Revenge of the PMO’ — as well as Teressa Torres’ pitch to continuously challenge your beliefs. (Running user interviews seems to be a good starting point.)

However, what if ‘Agile’ is merely a cult, something we made up collectively that is of no importance when it comes to creating outstanding products?

Have a great week!

?? The Essential Read: Multitasking Fallacy

Johanna Rothman: Why Managers Believe Multitasking Works: Long Decision Wait Times

Johanna Rothman points at the difference between a manager’s short work-time and long decision-wait time and the often resulting conflicts.

Source: Why Managers Believe Multitasking Works: Long Decision Wait Times

Author: Johanna Rothman

Agile & Scrum

Allan Kelly: Organizational structure in the Digital and Agile age

Allan Kelly shares his approach to organizational design based on delivery teams aligned to value stream.

Source: Organizational structure in the Digital and Agile age

Author: Allan Kelly

Ron Lichty: Scaling Scrum

Ron Lichty on what to do when a Scrum team grows from maximum-9 to a 10th team member.

Source: Scaling Scrum

Author: Ron Lichty

Zach Bonaker: Seeing the System With the WADE Matrix

Zach Bonaker introduces a respective format by Derek Wade which helps create the cause-effect relationship of a system.

Source: Seeing the System With the WADE Matrix

Author: Zach Bonaker

?? Hands-on Agile 2019 Conference — I Needed Your Support

Almost three years into building this community, I believe we might now have achieved the critical mass to organize a great conference — the Hands-on Agile 2019 Conference. Currently, I would target the second quarter of 2019 for the first Hands-on Agile conference. To reduce complexity, I would plan for Berlin as its location although London might be an alternative.

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Product & Lean

Marty Cagan: Scaling Agile FAQ

Marty Cagan shares the main questions he received following his last week’s article on the ‘Revenge of the PMO’ and his answers.

I’d like to close this with a quote from Jeff Bezos’ annual shareholder letter: “If you’re not watchful, the process can become the thing. This can happen very easily in large organizations. The process becomes the proxy for the result you want. You stop looking at outcomes and just make sure you’re doing the process right.”

Source: Scaling Agile FAQ

Author: Marty Cagan

Paul Adams (via Mind The Product): Don’t Join the Cult

Paul Adams of Intercom believes that Lean, Scrum and the like only exist in our collective imagination.

Source: Don’t Join the Cult

Author: Paul Adams

Teresa Torres (via This Is Product Management): Critical Thinking is Product Management

Teresa Torres reflects on why product teams need to question their thinking and conduct interviews on a regular cadence.

Source: This Is Product Management: Critical Thinking is Product Management

Author: Teresa Torres

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Food for Agile Thought #149: Multitasking Fallacy, Scaling Scrum, Agile Is a Cult, Agile Org Design was first published on Age-of-Product.com.